List of all Eye Scanner (Iris, Retina Recognition) Smartphones

Apple had implemented fingerprint scanner in iPhone 5S back in 2013, and later on Samsung, HTC and Huawei followed suit. Until the end of 2014, a numbered devices were equipped with biometric fingerprint scanner. But by the end of Q1, it has become a trend to add touch ID to mobile phones and every second company is launching phones with this facility. If our speculation goes right and if we are hitting the nail on the head, there will be a plethora of Fingerprint scanner devices by the end of 2015.

Amidst the peak of development of biometric fingerprint scanner, some players are all set to go in a radically different direction in terms of high-end biometric security and Fujitsu is the first one who debuts in a whole new realm of biometric iris recognition sensor technology, launching ARROWS NX F-04G, the first to feature Eye scanner smartphone. China based maker Vivo has also launched an iris scanner equipped phone with powerful front camera that has capability to capture images at 32MP.

Additionally there are strong rumors in the air saying that Korean giants Samsung and LG both are preparing to equip their upcoming flagship devices with bio-metric Eye scanner technology. Sources said that LG has tied up with a Korean based biometrics firm Irience to beef up its upcoming LG G5 with iris scanner.

Note – There is no match for Samsung when it comes to iris scanner phones so far. If you are desperate to have a highly accurate, fast and hassle free iris scanner in your phone that don’t suck, look nowhere else.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

The most powerful and amazing iris scanner mobile phones are s9 and S9+. Samsung has implemented instant unlocking iris scanner that can unlock your phone even in total darkness. The iris scanner of these devices is so fast as it can unlock your phone in less than one second and it is found 99% accurate.

Samsung S8, S8+ and Note 8

Iris Scanner of these devices are also pretty much fast and accurate and they can unlock your phone even in 100% darkness. Accuracy of the iris scanner installed in these phones is just a shade under that of Galaxy S9 (S9+).

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (discontinued by the company due to battery explosion issues)

Galaxy Note 7 is a phone that comes with fastest and most convenient iris scanner. You can get your phone unlocked when your phone is 10-14 inches away from your eyes. This distance is highly comfortable for your eyes. Also, there is no need to keep your phone exactly before your eyes. It can easily synchronize your eyes with sensor and can unlock your phone in a or two seconds. Let it be known that Galaxy Note is one of the few devices that features both fingerprint and eye scanner as well.

Samsung always puts its heart and soul to make its “Note” series phones stand out of the crowd and so is Galaxy Note 7. Other than having two state-of-art security implementation, Galaxy Note 7 boasts of an elegant design with dust-proof and waterproof metal body. It is a IP68 certified device and you can keep it under water of 1.5 meter depth for 30 minutes. Unlike its predecessors, it uses only Exynos CPU (ocatcore Exynos 8890) that works with Mali T880MP12 and 4GB of RAM.

Microsoft 950 XL (A Smartphone with some PC like abilities)

Microsoft had done something kind of big launching its 950 XL a Windows 10 OS phone. This Iris Scanner phone runs on the same Operating System as the desktop PC runs on. It is a mobile having some desktop applications. Connect your phone with a keyboard, mouse and a monitor and work with many desktop applications such as Microsoft Office, Outlook, Edge Browser etc. However, full featured desktop is not available with it and I don’t think it will support 3rd party apps like Adobe Photoshop etc. Desktop browsing will not disturb mobile display and tasks.

Microsoft 950 XL seems to be a piece of excellence having everything so sparky. It has a 5.7 inches Quad HD AMOLED clear-black display, Octacore Snapdragon 810 CPU, 3GB RAM, a shuddering 20MP primary camera equipped with Carl Zeiss optics and much more.

Fujitsu NX F-04G

Apart from Iris authentication technology, this device will blow your mind with its high-end specifications. It is a 5.2 inches display phone with 2K resolution and it is powered by a octacore Snapdragon 810 CPU clocked at (2GHz x 4 + 1.5GHz x 4) alongside a powerful Adreno 430 GPU clocked at 600MHz. On the other hand LPDDR3 double channel 3GB RAM leverages flawless multitasking.

Fujitsu has developed advanced technique to scan iris pattern of eye. Generally iris pattern don’t change after the age of 2 years that is why iris pattern can be chosen just like fingerprint pattern to identify a person. At the top of the front panel, Fujitsu placed an infrared LED and an infrared camera. To scan the iris, Infrared LED illuminates the iris pattern and at the same time infrared camera takes the picture of it. If the iris pattern matches with the registered pattern, phone will get unlocked. Reviews claim that Fujitsu iris scanning is pretty fast and much accurate than fingerprint scanner. Additionally, it works in all lighting conditions.

Registering your eyes for scanner is very easy, just start setup and keep your eyes inside two circles appear on the screen. Scanner will capture your iris within a few seconds. Unlocking the device using its IR scanner generally takes less than a second.

This scanner can unlock the device while it is utmost 22cm (9 inches) away from the eye. This distance is claimed to be 6 inches more than that the distance of a traditional iris scanner.

Salient Features of Fujitsu NX F-04G

Android version – 5.0 Lollipop

CPU – Octacore, Snapdragon 810, (2GHz x 4 + 1.5GHz x 4)

GPU – Adreno 430

RAM – 3GB

Memory – 32GB internal + expandable

Display – IPS LCD display, 5.2 inches, Quad-HD

Camera –Primary – 20.7 MP Sony camera, Secondary – 2MP

Battery – 3120 mAh

Price – $750 (available exclusively in Japan for DoCoMo users)

Vivo X5Pro (partnered with EyeVerify)

Vivo, a Chinese manufacturer, announced its Eye authentication smartphone in May 2015 and now it is up for sale. It is a 4G, dual SIM phone with 5.2 inches Super AMOLED display, powered by Snapdragon 615 octacore CPU divided in two clusters (Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & quad-core 1.0 GHz Cortex-A53). It is running Funtouch OS 2.1 on the top of Android 5.0. The device has 16 GB internal memory and up to 128 GB expandable. Sadly, there is no separate SD card slot, and microSD card can be used in SIM2 slot.

How Vivo X5Pro Iris Scanner works

Recognition target – Blood vessels in white part of eye

Unlike Fujitsu NX F-04G, Vivo X5Pro Iris scanner, Vivo X5Pro scanner uses blood vessels pattern in white part of eye. There is no infrared LED to illuminate the iris pattern. X5Pro front camera, however, is remarkably powerful and can capture images at 32 megapixel. It may take up to 20 seconds to register an iris pattern using X5Pro scanner and unlocking the phone may take over 2-4 seconds that is not in fact impressive

Price – $560 (available on Amazon)

ZTE Grand S3 (partnered with EyeVerify)

Recognition target – Blood vessels in white part of eye

ZTE unveiled Grand S3 in March 2015 and it remains to be available by now. ZTE takes different approach to scan eye teaming up with biometric scanner manufacturer company EyeVerify. Being Branded as Eyeprint ID, this technique supposedly uses eye vein patterns of white portion of eye to unlock the phone via phone front facing camera. Currently it is not available to buy on any online store. It is a 5.5 inches IPS LCD FHD display, quadcore Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5 GHz and 3GB RAM powered phone. Moreover it has a 16MP primary camera and 8MP front facing camera, 16GB internal storage in addition to a 64GB microSD card slot. The device has 3100mAh battery.

Price – $480 (approx.)

Alcatel Idol 3 (partnered with EyeVerify)

Recognition target – Blood vessels in white part of eye

Just like ViVo X5 Pro and ZTE Grand S3, Alcatel also implemented eye scanner in collaboration with EyeVerify. Same method is used for scanning eye just like in formers. This device is available at a decent price of about $250 on online stores.

UMI Iron

UMI has added EyeVerify powered Eyeprint technology that scans eyeball vein to authenticate the access. Its eye scanning is much more secure than fingerprint scanning and no-one can hack your device in any event. Testing shows that it takes up to two seconds to unlock your phone via Eyeprint sensor.

LG G5 (rumored)

LG G5 has become a much hyped phone before about one year of its launch because of speculations of biometric eye scanner implementation in this device . Reportedly, LG is working with Irience, a renowned Iris recognition device maker company. If rumors serve us right, LG G5 will turn out to be the best mobile with iris sensor.

Irience made IR scanners are said to have ability to unlock the device when it is at the distance of 50 cm from the user’s eye

Galaxy S7 (rumored)

Though, rumors of eye recognition system have been being in the air for over two years in regards to Samsung flagship devices e.g. galaxy S5 and Note 4 but every time they have proved unfruitful. Again, according to a latest hearsay from South Korea, Samsung will be likely to add biometric iris scanner in its forthcoming flagship Galaxy S7, set to be launched in 2016.

As per tech experts, eye scanning method is much more secure than fingerprint scanning in terms of encryption and fairly convenient too. Also, by far, eye scanners are found safe for eyes. However, it is quire different and funny too that physically, eye scanning is less secure than fingerprint scanning. For instance, if one of your friend takes your phone in his hand and keeps it before your eyes, it will get unlocked in a matter of seconds and you will be fooled easily. But it is not the case with fingerprint scanning. No one can make your finger put on scanner easily.

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6 Comments

Eyeprint ID actually images the blood vessels in the whites of your eyes vs the retina – much more accessible, but still secure. It is the same technology offered in the Vivo X5 Pro, as well as the Idol3 by Alcatel OneTouch. Thanks!

The Motorola Atrix was the first phone to implement a finger print scanner. It was also the first phone with a multi core processor and the first to implement a dock that converted it to a laptop. It was an awesome phone. Apple like to be the second mouse to the mouse trap, they wait for another manufacturer to attempt something first and learn from their experiences. They don’t like to be the first to try anything although they always like to pretend to be and journalists who don’t want to get their publication blacklisted sadly have to play along.

Come on everyone…..wake the hell up! Iris scanning is very intrusive. It allows “anyone” with the proper technology, (cellphone carriers, advertising conglomerates, and yes even the government) a definitive way to identify “you” as the current user. Its labeled as Target Recognition. They will always be able to tell who you are, where you are, what your kids are doing, and what you are saying. You wouldn’t give this information to a perfect stranger, but that’s precisely what you’d be doing 24 hours a day. Think about it.

@ Eubanks, so, what you’re saying is that everyone should walk around deaf, blind and stupid? Guess what? you need a reality check, anybody that looks at you in the street can see what you’re doing so that means they have to be blind so they can’t intrude into your privacy, anyone that stands next to you or talks to you can hear what you say, so that means they have to be deaf, so that they can’t intrude into your privacy by not hearing your conversation.

I am working on adding an additional layer of security, iris AND retina scanning.
This is a lot more difficult and needs a special multiswitch lens but can be done and is nearly impossible to hack if the crypto module is properly implemented.
Ideally all you want is a yes/no security string from the encrypted store inside the module with a failsafe so if it is ever plugged into another motherboard it overwrites the stored keys.
Likewise if any other sensor is plugged in the same happens, the IC itself has self destructing encapsulant which permanently breaks all the connections and fries the silicon if any attempt is made to open its casing.